Medical Negligence

The Singapore court said that the Bolam standard was doctor centred as it focused upon whether a responsible body of medical opinion would have given the advice in question. The need to obtain a patient’s informed consent to medical treatment, however, arose from the central principle that the patient had autonomy to decide such matters. In recognition of this, the Court concluded it was necessary to move towards a more patient-centric standard of disclosure. Montgomery v Lanarkshire Health Board ,a landmark case in the UK also determined that the adequacy of disclosure was to be judged from the perspective of the patient, rather than from the perspective of clinicians.

Both cases will have significant consequences for medical malpractice litigation. Thomson Medical involved a claim for the upkeep costs of a child conceived following an IVF mix-up, resulting in the child’s biological father being a stranger rather than the husband of the child’s mother. The Court of Appeal, drawing on concepts of autonomy, recognized a novel head of damage loss of genetic affinity and awarded damages to the claimant.